Sunday, May 10, 2009

On the Probability of God's Certainty

I woke up a little sick of hearing myself think, so I'm tempted to just sew an open thread. Plus I overslept.

Before getting to the Sunday rerun, I want to say something about a comment from yesterday. Although appreciative of my efforts, he concluded by saying that

"Your most irksome, yet somehow endearing trait, is your obsession with atheists and leftists. I am an addict, and I know obsession when I see it. You have the disease of addiction, and it takes a very strange form. Your readers are all enabling you as codependents, because none are willing to stand up and say, 'Sir, you repeat yourself endlessly. Whyfore do you do this?'"

I'll take that as an honest question. The reason I do it is because I sincerely believe that the ideals that have always animated the United States are under systematic and continuous assault by the left, and that if they are successful in radically transforming the country, it will eventually spell the end of civilization. I've seen the changes just in my lifetime, and at this rate, the game will be over in a generation or two, when there will be no one left alive who remembers the way things were. At the very least, a new Dark Age will be upon us, until such a time as the perennial truths are rediscovered -- if they ever are.

In terms of my own influences, one person I don't mention enough is Dennis Prager, to whom I have listened for years. In fact, when I started listening to him, I was in the position of the liberal who can't stop reading my blog, even though he disagrees with me. By constant exposure to his thinking, it eventually eradicated the virus. But it took a long time, and I don't think I could have ever recovered in the absence of the day-to-day exposure. Even now, I don't find him repetitive, since the virus is constantly mutating and requires new responses from the spiritual autoimmune system. Among media figures, I consider Prager irreplaceable.

Today it is difficult for me to even remember the negative emotional reaction I once had to him. And it was purely emotional, being that his facts and logic were impeccable. Thus, my only available response was anger or contempt. That is how I know so intimately what it is like to be a leftist, and why they behave the way they do. Since they cannot argue on the merits, they always must rely upon lies, contempt, deceit, superiority, distortion, sanctimony, political correctness, and the galloping herd mentality of "conventional wisdom" they help shape and enforce from preschool all the way to the intellectual kindergarten of the university.

I could go on, but it's getting late. On with the post.

*****

As I mentioned in the book, the existence of God is not on a continuum of probability. It is not as if one becomes a believer because 51% of the evidence points in the direction of a largely nightened deity, or as if God is a plurality instead of the very ground and possibility of unity. Rather, I would say that God is either strictly impossible or absolutely necessary.

Furthermore, if he is not impossible, then he is necessary. Being that a higher cosmic power is obviously not impossible, this is another way of saying that everything proves its existence, most especially atheists, who are like branches that grow more leaves in order to prove that trees don't exist. Frankly, that argument is so green, that they're either very immature or very envious.

And rePetey after him: it's a tree of life for those whose wood beleaf. So long as you are a-living, a-laughing, and a-loving, then you beleafing. No, you cannot leaf God allone, bark as you might. You may well be dysluxic, but even the least of you is not made in the image of doG, for the woof and warp of existence are woven with threads of the vertical and horizontal. I don't mean to needle you pinheads, but this is why you're born to learn and grow in truth and wisdom, even if the best you can come up with is a crazy quilt or quasi-cult of atheistic nonsense.

The Tree of Life has it's nonlocal roots above, its local branches and district orifices down below. Which is why it All Makes Sense, including, of course, science. For if you try to grow the Tree of Life in the infertile soil below, it won't survive the transplant, and can produce nothing, not even death (which requires life). Nothing makes sense in such an inverted cosmos, including atheism, which supernaturally presupposes an intelligence perversely capable of denying its own sufficient reason. There can be no meaning, no purpose, no truth, no values, no nothing, not even nothing (in other words, no animal but man is dense enough to be an existentialist).

You know what they say: the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Thus, their every blasphemy praises God. Only animals are atheists. But even then, not really. That's an insult to animals, being that no animal has the unnatural stupidity to deny its own intelligence, instinct being equivalent to animal intellect, just as man's uncreated intellect is his central instinct.

Which is why the vast majority of people are instinctive theists. It just means their intellect is more or less intact. A human who denies the divine is like a flower who turns from the sun. When that happens, your intellect can no longer engage in photosynthesis, which is simply converting spiritual Light into thought. I mean, you can still do it, but don't be surprised that your beleafs are so yellow and withered, perhaps even tenured. Plus, you can't digest them, unless you enjoy word salad -- which this green solid of a post is not to be confused with. Unlike other salad bars, this one actually gets you high.

Again, animals do not live in the cosmos, only in their nervous systems. Alone among the animals, human beings have broken free of their neurology, and inhabit a vast cosmos in which consciousness is the center and axis. Cosmology is ultimately the study of man -- and vice versa.

Here again, the gap between animal and man is infinite, just as is the gap between matter and life. To say that the genomes of humans and chimps are 99% similar (or whatever it is) only points to the poverty of biology to account for the infinite divide between human beings and their furry and/or tenured cousins.

This, by the way, is why Wallace -- the co-discoverer of modern theory of evolution by common descent -- concluded that it was hopelessly inadequate to account for so many defining characteristics of the human race. Ironically, as Berlinksi notes, Darwin had misgivings about the theory because, in "considering its consequences, he feared [it] might be true." But with Wallace, it was the other way around: "Considering, its consequences, he suspected his theory might be false."

And what are those consequences? They are too numerous to mention, but they ultimately result -- as is only logical and necessary -- in the elimination of Man as Such, or the Human Erase, if not in the short term, then most certainly in the long term. Don't you see it happening before your eyes?! Devilution is surely real.

People who pretend to not understand the link between Darwinism or atheism and nazism or communism are just willfully obtuse, for the great mystery of the cosmos is not why evil, or falsehood, or oppression, or ugliness, exist.

Rather, as always, the question is how truth, or goodness, or beauty, can exist in a wholly naturalistic cosmos. Not why there are sinners, but why there are saints. Not why there is despair, but why there is hope and joy. Not why there are liars who take advantage, but why there is Truth to which a good person naturally wishes to conform his being. Not why Madonna exists, but why Van Morrison does. Not why Bill Maher exists, but why Groucho did. And most assuredly, not why Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins sopher their books to exist, but why Frithjof Schuon or Meister Eckhart blessed us in their lifetomes.

As I argued in One Cosmos, Wallace came to the conclusion that "characteristic human abilities must be latent in primitive man, existing somehow as an unopened gift, the entryway to a world that primitive man does not possess and would not recognize." Such a view makes no sense in Darwinian terms, for it would suggest "the forbidden doctrine that evolutionary advantages were frontloaded far away and long ago; it is in conflict with the Darwinian principle that useless genes are subject to negative selection pressure and must therefore find themselves draining away in the sands of time" (Berlinski).

Again: in the upside-down world of secular materialism, the gaps in being are infinite and unbridgeable. But in the right side-up world of the perennial religion, the ontological continuity is infinite, extending as it does from the top down, from the One to the many, from the center to the periphery, and from the Abbasolute father to his middling relativities. In such a universe, evil and falsehood are not permitted, but they are nevertheless "necessary," or at least ineveateapple, or existence could not exist. Which is why all atheist cretins are liars. And why in contrast we are Free Men. Truth has a way of doing that.

The thing I respect the most about you Bob is that you aren't going down without a good fight. Keep it up, and allow all the anons the liberty to deal with their own uncomfortable emotions concerning your pointing out cause and effect spiritual manifestations in real life. Countering the lefts influence on this society and its ramifications, as pointed out in your introduction to today's post, is more more than enough justification for doing what you do.

Happy Mother's Day to all who dwell here and have the blessing of someone to call them "Mommy." I was telling Bob last night that Tristan seems to understand what it is for me to be his mommy more than I do. For me, it will always be a bit surreal and surprising that I'm his mother. But he is completely comfortable with the whole wild idea.

Last night was the 25th anniversary of Bob and my first date. I still can't believe God's grace led me to find him. I don't want to know where I'd be without him.

"I've seen the changes just in my lifetime, and at this rate, the game will be over in a generation or two, when there will be no one left alive who remembers the way things were."

Last night we were watching "It happened one night" (1934); there's a scene on a bus where all the people begin joining in on a sing along, and with my 10 yr olds surprised look, I just realized how alien that world is to ours.

Lots of leftist muck to be scrubbed away, cynicism, "... lies, contempt, deceit, superiority, distortion, sanctimony, political correctness, and the galloping herd mentality of "conventional wisdom""... and it'll take some scrubbing, but a decent application of TruthSol and some elbow grease, will leave it sparkling anew.

Rather than another long string of 'Van said's, here’s one easily collapsible selection so that on this day, in deference to their Mother's, our aninnymesses can easily avoid being further burned,

"A human who denies the divine is like a flower who turns from the sun. When that happens, your intellect can no longer engage in photosynthesis, which is simply converting spiritual Light into thought. I mean, you can still do it, but don't be surprised that your beleafs are so yellow and withered, perhaps even tenured."

and,

"Don't you see it happening before your eyes?! Devilution is surely real."

and,

"Rather, as always, the question is how truth, or goodness, or beauty, can exist in a wholly naturalistic cosmos. Not why there are sinners, but why there are saints. Not why there is despair, but why there is hope and joy. Not why there are liars who take advantage, but why there is Truth to which a good person naturally wishes to conform his being."

and that last so clearly explains why the pomofo world of disintegrated leftism is so... wrong that it isn't even wrong... it is unreal. It requires and expresses a turning away from the light that is so sad and painful to behold... knowing that they force themselves to be holed.

Many moons ago, when the quantity vs quality battle was gaining steam, naturally reached its climax of nowhere right off the bat, it was first summed up by Thomas Huxley 'Darwin's Bulldog' in "Science And Culture", who argued for ridding schools of anything whose 'truth' could not be reduced to quantification and 'practical' skills to 'make a living'. As Matthew Arnold replied to his friend Huxley, the Harris/Dawkins of his day(though they are severely devilolved from his height, as he had the benefit of the education he railed against, and which they so clearly lack), in "Literature and Science":

"Interesting indeed, these results of science are, important they are, I and we should all of us be acquainted with them. But what I now I wish you to mark is, that we are still, when they are propounded to us and we receive them, we are still in the sphere of intellect and knowledge. And for the generality of men there will be found, I say, to arise, when they have duly taken in the proposition that their ancestor was "a hairy quadruped furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits," there will be found to arise an invincible desire to relate this proposition to the sense in us for conduct, and to the sense in us for beauty. But this the men of science will not do for us, and will hardly even profess to do. They will give us other pieces of knowledge, other facts, about other animals and their ancestors, or about plants, or about stones, or about stars; and they may finally bring us to those great "general conceptions of the universe, which are forced upon us all," says Professor Huxley, "by the progress of physical science." But still it will be knowledge only which they give us, knowledge not put for us into relation with our sense for conduct, our sense for beauty, and touched with emotion by being so put; not thus put for us, and therefore, to the majority of mankind, after a certain while, unsatisfying, wearying.

...And so we at last find, it seems, we find flowing in favour of the humanities the natural and necessary stream of things, which seemed against them when we started. The "hairy quadruped furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits," this good fellow carried hidden in his nature, apparently, something destined to develop into a necessity for humane letters. Nay, more; we seem finally to be even led to the further conclusion that our hairy ancestor carried in his nature, also, a necessity for Greek..."In the end, Sweetness and Light will win out, if only because it is so painfully difficult to always be turning and shrinking away from them. I would of course prefer that it win out in my lifetime, or at least my children’s, but I recognize that in One Cosmos that had the patience to wait billions and billions of years before even the possibility of Sweetness and Light being seen… that may be somewhat unrealistic. But that too is ok, for unlike the leftist, I recognize that it is unlikely in the extreme I could have designed it any better.

Thanks, Julie, and Mrs. G.I'll add my wished for a great day for all the moms.What I loved- and experience again with the grandkids- is the amazing variety.

Too late to comment yesterday- I think a lot of the objections are more style- than content based. But I like reading here- I'm always impressed by those who can do something well vocatioanlly, especially if it's not a skill I possess myself.So, what Walt said.

And... a select clientele is not necessarily the same thing as an elite one- which I sometimes think is a trollish objection.

Bob "instructs the ignorant". It's a Spiritual Work of Mercy, straight off the list.

Maybe I'm naive, but there is a sense that sweetness and light are breaking through the clouds even as we speak. The Beast has to be working overtime for a reason, first of all. Meanwhile, things keep cropping up. It almost seems like it first began to gather steam when people started saying "Merry Christmas" with a certain defiance a couple of years back.

There's this little book for Catholics, The Magnificat, that comes out each month, prayers, rituals, essays etc for each day of the month. Since we're at sea in the church, my wife has been buying them for awhile. When she went in last week to pick up May's, they were already sold out.

The clerk at the little Catholic book store couldn't understand it. That never happens.

Bob: Dr. Laura was my equivalent to your Dennis Prager. Same initial reaction, same flocking like a moth to the light. Where I work now, Dr. Laura is seen as wanting to take women back to the dark ages.

Julie: I have found more like Fr. Lazarus on youtube and google video... no links unfortunately but they are simple interviews with hermits who speak from a profound silence and have a joy that is clear (all of them in other languages). I was surprised to see Fr. Lazarus speaking with an Aussie accent.... but his eyes and his smile speak more than any words could ever convey.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

There definitely is a battle shaping up in what I'm seeing between the forces of light and darkness, maineman. The inability of most on one side to even sense it is amazing.

"Moreover, this time of the end is the time of the most bitter struggle.... Christ's utter Yes to God and to the world drives the utter No -- the demonic, anti-Christian No -- out of its hiding-place" (Balthasar).

Maineman: "Maybe I'm naive, but there is a sense that sweetness and light are breaking through the clouds even as we speak. The Beast has to be working overtime for a reason, first of all. Meanwhile, things keep cropping up. It almost seems like it first began to gather steam when people started saying "Merry Christmas" with a certain defiance a couple of years back."

If maineman hadn't written this, I would have missed the evidence of it I've been seeing around me lately.

That Prager link was really great, Bob. I would know nothing of him had you not referenced him in the past. His/your discussion a couple of years back of how the Jews promoted women and the family by putting the kibosh on homosexuality was a very important clarification for me.

I often wonder what makes some people able to pull together reality in a way that identifies the truth. I'm one who doesn't do that very well, but I am able to know the truth when I see it. Prager seems gifted with insight.

I'm glad for the confirmation, Sehoy. Helps me to be more confident that it's not just wishful thinking on my part.

I'll add my Mother's Day wishes to all mothers present.Interesting that you should mention Prager. I used to listen to him when he preceded Larry Elder on KABC, and he had a profound effect on me as well. In the first few months after 9/11 I needed more than anything to listen to someone who had the wisdom and knowledge to make sense of what had happened- someone who could explain to me what the hell was going on. Dennis Prager was my first choice. I bought a small pocket radio so that I'd never have to miss Prager's broadcast. When my worldview was broken down, I turned to his wisdom to start to rebuild it. One morning he did an hour on this great weblog called Little Green Footballs. I felt like I'd found home. On LGF I ran across Gagdad Bob, BabbaZee, and a few others. Charles turned into Reptilicus, and the Coonosphere was born. Ahh, how it all weaves out.

Maineman said "Maybe I'm naive, but there is a sense that sweetness and light are breaking through the clouds even as we speak."

I cautiously agree, and first began to note the same several years ago, starting with comments and attitudes I was picking up from my kids friends. Most have no political interests (their parents either), but their comments towards kids who once would have been called stoners and the like, and about what they saw as govt telling them what they could or couldn’t do, has been tickling my ear for probably a decade.

Also, at turns encouraging and deeply discouraging, is their utter lack of respect for many of their teachers, and the material they are being taught. This isn’t the typical kids vs teacher comments, they’d deride them for knowing nothing about their subjects, being unable to explain simple questions, teaching by powerpoint… and … I can’t think of the phrase I’ve heard a lot, but something like ‘fool hippie notions’ they’d blather on about in class.

It doesn’t quite capture it, but terming it a ‘South Park’ attitude wouldn’t be that far off the mark. Not quite sure that’s a step in the right direction… but seems like a step away from the wrong direction.

And here’s something else… going off the board a bit, not as examples of substance, but of tone… T.V. shows such as ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’, even ‘One Tree Hill’, ‘Smallville’… these shows have had a strong undercurrent on what is right, and what is wrong, and of characters who wrestle with the issues and who either refuse to take the cynical cop out, or are shown ruined by having done so. Again, I don’t mean this is any serious substantive way, but if you grew up in the 70’s & 80’s, if such things ever did come up, they were treated cartoonishly, or with campy ridicule. Look at the difference between the ‘Batman’ movies of the 90’s, and the last two.

Something has changed there… is it enough? That I’d never bank on, but there is something there to work with, which I’ve been catching more and more whiff’s of. It’s not enough to bank on, but it is something.

And besides, what good would it be if things were guaranteed? No worthwhile battle was ever a sure thing, otherwise the people who stood up to fight the battle… wouldn’t have! Why would you go to great lengths, pains and efforts to fight for something that you had no doubt would prevail?

The only worthwhile battles are those which are undecided, and which people have to choose their positions and stand up for them in the face of threatening odds. As they do so, as they stand, others take heart and do the same.

I’ve no doubt that issues such as you mentioned with the no-Christmas messages, caused people to begin to stand up and say ‘B.S.!’. Such issues, and such people, ripple. They do. So do the smallest acts of doing what is right in simple issues of manners, of replying to snide comments and behaviors in private and public gatherings… I really think that that is where the fuel is found for the somewhat larger issues, and from them the much larger ones.

JWMI had exactly the same experience of Prager post 9/11. Prior to that I listened mostly to Howard Stern and Jim Rome. (Howard was great that day, too.)

After that, I needed someone to put my world back together and make sense of things. You put it better, but that was such a profound experience to have Prager there to explain things on such a deep level.

>>this time of the end is the time of the most bitter struggle.... Christ's utter Yes to God and to the world drives the utter No -- the demonic, anti-Christian No -- out of its hiding-place<<

Much the same as when an individual strikes out on the Path - a distance is created between the core I AM consciousness and the parasites that have hitherto been lurking under the surface of the mundane consciousness. The exposed parasites begin to scream, threaten, inflate themselves to grotesque proportions. At this point, one had better stand fast lest all be lost.

Anyway, what this spells is a battle between the Light and powers/principalities fully joined. Prediction: There will be signs of this in the sky.

>>'Sir, you repeat yourself endlessly. Whyfore do you do this?<<

Heh, have you no decency, sir, at long last? Well . . . actually, for eyes that can see, Bob never repeats himself. Yes, the theme remains the same (a good example of "standing fast" to the basic spiritual principle), but Bob always approaches it from a slightly different angle. The Light, after all, has infinite refractions while remaining One Light. I suppose for some, Gregorian chant, the entire canon, sounds absolutely alike, but, for the discerning ear, the variations are myriad and wondrous.

On repeating the same old storyline, I had an identical experience two days ago, in which a good friend who just doesn't get me said, "But it's not doing any good" to highlight what's happening.

At the risk of self-flattery, I was reminded of Nock's great essay, "Isaiah's Job". What I remember is God saying something like, "Tell everyone what's going down, what a mess they're making of it all, but it won't do any good."

What About Bob?

Who spirals down the celestial firepole on wings of slack, seizes the wheel of the cosmic bus, and embarks upin a bewilderness adventure of higher nondoodling? Who, haloed be his gnome, loiters on the threshold of the transdimensional doorway, looking for handouts from Petey? Who, with his doppelgägster and testy snideprick, Cousin Dupree, wields the pliers and blowtorch of fine insultainment for the ridicure of assouls? Who is the gentleman loaffeur who yoinks the sword from the stoned philosopher and shoves it in the breadbasket of metaphysical ignorance and tenure? Whose New Testavus for the Restavus blows the locked doors of the empyrean off their rusty old hinges and sheds a beam of intense darkness on the world enigma? Who is the Biggest Fakir of the Vertical Church of God Knows What, channeling the roaring torrent of 〇 into the feeble stream of cyberspace? Who is the masked pandit who lobs the first water balloon out the motel window at the annual Raccoon convention? Who is your nonlocal partner in disorganized crimethink? Shut your mouth! But I'm talkin' about bʘb! Then we can dig it!